1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for the manufacture of baked foods and, more particularly, to an automatic machine for baking flat wafers from a batter where such wafers are adapted for subsequent folding to form fortune cookies.
2. State of the Art
A fortune cookie is a specialty food formed by folding a thin circular wafer about a pair of perpendicular axes into a characteristic shape. The general ingredients of a fortune cookie are water, flour, sugar, shortening and vanilla flavoring which are blended to form a batter according to various recipies known to workers in the art.
According to conventional prior practice, the batter is poured into special molds which are then heated to bake the wafers flat. A mold typically includes a shallow cupped container for holding a small quantity of the batter and a heavy cover plate which is pivotably mounted to sealingly cover the cupped container during the baking period. A single mold "unit" usually includes two side-by-side cups. In commerical ovens, a plurality of such mold units are arranged at spaced-apart intervals around a circular frame which is rotatable like a carrousel. The mold units are heated by gas flames as they rotate horizontally with the frame beneath special hoods. After baking the thin flat wafers are folded into the characteristic fortune cookie shape while still warm and pliable.
In conventional practice, the wafers are manually removed from the molds, usually by manipulating a sharpened wooden implement to scrape or shovel the wafers from the cupped containers. Manual removal of the wafers, however, is unduly slow if automatic or semi-automatic folding machines are to be used at high production rates.
Ovens which include automatic means for removing wafers are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,605,642 and 3,265,016. In the former patent, FIG. 1 and 3 show wafers being "ejected" from baking cups by piston-like inserts disposed in the bottoms of the cups; thereafter, the wafers are plied from the faces of the inserts. Also in the former patent, dual folding devices are provided for use with double-cup baking units. In the latter patent, wafers are dislodged from an intermittantly-operated apertured belt by means of a bifurcated folding member.